Into the Wild Black Yonder
Chapter Twenty-one - Third of Three - part three
On the Enterprise
Mid November, 2258
Spock
The hazard suit to be modified was quickly found and mounted on a rack for easy access. Scotty fetched the small repeller module and soldered it to the chest of the suit while Spock began to create the web of wiring over the surface that they would electrify once the suit was on the captain. They worked as quickly as possible, not stopping to test it until all the work was finished. Standing well back, they pressed the controls on the small remote device they had created and watched a nimbus of energy crackle over the surface of the suit. The sensors they had placed inside showed that none of the energy penetrated to the interior of the suit. Scotty slapped him heartily on the back, exultant. Although he did not appreciate the impact, he did appreciate the sentiment that caused it. They shut down all the circuits and headed for the turbolift with the modified suit.
When they reached the door to the captain's ready room, he tried to contact Nyota. He could only feel her faintly. But as he was beginning to panic, the door to the room clicked, unlocking. Swiftly they entered the room, closing the door behind them. As soon as they were clear of the door, she pressed the control again, sending threads of current sheeting down the inside of the door.
Scotty set the altered suit down beside the captain and they helped him into it, sealing it up and checking to be sure that all the fasteners were perfectly sealed. The environmental controls began to function as soon as the seals closed, giving the captain air and temperature controls. When he was completely sealed inside, they motioned him over to an empty corner of the room, being sure he did not touch any of the walls. Then Scotty pressed the other control, turning on the modifications. Static discharges covered the outside of the suit and the repeller field shimmered about him.
Inside the suit, Kirk smiled widely. "Hey it works! I don't feel that pressure anymore at all! Great work guys!"
Scotty turned to Spock with a wide smile. "Shall we turn off the circuits around the room and check it out, then?"
"Yes, I believe that should be the next step." Nyota handed him the small control unit he had given her as they left the room and he turned off the altered electrical circuits sending current around the exterior of the room. Everyone watched the captain closely. He made faces at them and grinned. Spock watched the others in the room. Everyone seemed to be functioning correctly. It did appear that the captain himself had been the cause of all the effects on other crew members. Now all they needed to do was find out what was causing the effects on the captain and disrupt that. If that was even possible.
He turned to Scotty just as the other man spoke. "What the hell do we do next?"
"An excellent question. Unfortunately, I have no answer."
Kirk was still standing in the corner. "What do we do next, guys? How do we solve this? Where is this interference coming from and how do we get rid of it? And how long do I have to stand in the corner anyway?"
Nyota
She looked the two men standing beside her, inarguably the two most intelligent, engineeringly talented men on the ship, both totally lost as to what to do next. She looked at the captain, still coming out of the fog he had been walking around in. None of them were going to be any help right now, obviously. She took two steps forward and laid her hands on McCoy's shoulders, where he sat at the table, gaping around at everyone. "Come on, Len, time for us to put our thinking caps on."
"Dollface, I know nothing about physics and electricity and all that stuff. 'Fraid I can't be of any great help here."
"But they already did that stuff. We have some breathing room here. Time to try something different." She sat down in the empty chair beside him. "How did he get in this fix, anyway?"
"Sounds like a good starting place to me. Jimbo, how about you tell us all about this from the very start?"
She reached behind her and took Spock's hand, dragging him down into the empty chair on her other side. "And you add in your two cents, as well. After all, you were with him when he found that first one." Beside her, McCoy pulled out a PADD and poised a stylus over it, ready to take notes. Seeing that, she did the same. They might not think the same things were important. All eyes focused on the captain as he tried to organize his thoughts.
"You just want me to tell you what happened on that first planet?"
"Yes, in excruciating detail. Every single thought that passed through your mind. And Spock, you add in all the physical stuff that he leaves out. We need every possible clue to try to figure this out."
Jim
Jim's face was thoughtful behind the shield of the hazard suit. "Well, first off, everyone else was down there having fun and I was stuck up on the ship. You know, now that I think back on it, that wasn't a logical way to feel about it, was it Spock? I mean, the ship is my responsibility. I'm not the one that's supposed to be down there doing the nitty gritty stuff."
"Indeed, Captain, it was a highly illogical thought to have. As was your insistence that I accompany you."
"Yeah. About that...maybe I felt I needed you to counterbalance me. You usually do a pretty good job of that."
"I believe that must be part of my job description." Spock's voice was very dry.
Jim looked at him in mild astonishment. "A joke, Spock? Really? I didn't know you had it in you." He shook his head, making the whole hazard suit vibrate and flash. "Ooops. Maybe I shouldn't do that. Anyway, all I could think about was getting down there. And this was even before we found that first rock. Was it having an effect on me then? Even before we got down on the surface?"
Spock steepled his hands together, elbows braced on the table. He was quiet for a moment before speaking. "You have always been fairly impetuous. And eager to dash into dangerous situations. It is difficult for me to determine whether this action was your natural inclination or whether it was enhanced by some force connected with these strange formations."
"Huh. Impetuous. Really?"
"Indeed."
"Okay. I'll have to take your word on that. And think about it later. Anyway, I did think about it - about who I could leave in charge - I didn't just dash off. Although, come to think about it, my first thought was to leave you in charge. Something just told me that I needed you down there with me." His eyes unfocused, musing. "If you hadn't been there, that first time, I think I would have just walked right up to that thing and latched on to it."
"Latched on to it?"
"Yeah, just laid both hands right smack on the front in those little hollows."
At this, the two notetakers both raised their heads quickly. "Little hollows?" Came out of both mouths almost simultaneously.
At the same time, Spock was manipulating the intel file, bringing a specific image up on the small viewscreen on the wall beside the captain. A full frontal image of the first rock formation which had been found was now displayed. There, right in the center, just at chest height, were two vaguely rectangular depressions. "Interesting. I do not remember noticing those before. But they are plainly there."
"How could you not notice them, Spock? They are so bright and inviting and...Whoa!"
Spock's head was cocked to one side, regarding the captain. "They are the same color as the remainder of the rock. Which is why they are difficult to see. They are very shallow and do not cast much shadow. In what manner are they inviting?"
"Hmm. Well, they just are. Sorry. They kind of glow and ... It's like they're saying 'come here big guy' ". He flushed. "Well, that's the impression I get."
"Fascinating. I do not see any of that. Does anyone else?" He looked around the table. Everyone just looked blank. "No one else sees any colors? Any glow? Feel anything at all?" This must mean something, but what?
"So anyway, we beamed down and there was that big path.."
There Spock interrupted him. "There was no path."
"What? Seriously, man, there was this big wide path with the ground all trampled down flat and... There wasn't?"
"Absolutely not. Look at the screen. There was vegetation growing randomly everywhere. There was no path at all."
"Holy crap."
Now McCoy spoke up. "Okay, we seem to have established that you were having hallucinations at least from the time you beamed down. And some sort of influence even before that, while you were still on the ship. So for some reason, either you are extremely susceptible to whatever it is, or else it picked you out for some unknown reason. Whichever, once you were 'selected', you got all these visuals that no one else got and don't show up on the recordings."
"Yeah, looks that way." He was silent briefly. "Guess we should have had this kind of conversation a while back." He started to shake his head again and stopped quickly when one of the circuits on his chest flashed. "Man, this suit is just weird. We need to hurry and figure this thing out so I can get out of it."
Spock and McCoy both looked at him warily. Spock spoke quietly. "You may not be out of it for some time, Captain. We will not necessarily find a solution any time soon."
"But I need to pee!"
There were many red faces in the room and people who looked as if they were having great difficulties in suppressing mirth.
Scotty stood up. "Okay, everybody out. We need to do some more engineering and we're gonna have ta turn the current back on around the room in order to turn off that suit. Everybody that doesn't need ta be in here ta help, leave now." There was a quick exodus from the room, leaving only McCoy and Spock standing there with Scotty, shaking their heads at what they had overlooked.
McCoy spoke as the last of the people exited the room. "Maybe we ought to feed him as well."
"Hey, I'm not a zoo exhibit here! I'm still the Captain!"
***
When the necessary suit modifications had been completed, and the captain had been given a chance to eat lunch, he climbed back into the suit and Spock and Scotty sealed him in again. When the suit controls had been turned on, and the room charge turned off, and both men were satisfied, they called the remainder of the senior staff back into the room to continue the brainstorming session.
Nyota started things off. "Okay, to recap: The Captain had this great illogical desire to rush right down to the planet and plant his hands in those rectangular hollows on the front of that rock, which wasn't even there until he beamed down. When he first go to the planet, he saw a wide, beaten down path that lead straight to the rock, a path that no one else ever saw. Did I miss anything?" She looked first a Jim, then at Spock. Both shook their heads. "Okay. So the you followed the path and Spock followed you and you found the rock. What happened then?"
"Well, I didn't know what it was. I felt like I ought to, but I didn't. So I asked Spock what it was, but he didn't know either. He said it was just native stone. And he made me wait until he scanned it with his tricorder before he would let me get any closer. And then when we got even closer, he made me stop while he transmitted all that data up here. Then he finally let loose of me and let me walk to real close."
"Wait a minute. Let loose of you? He was holding on to you?"
"Yeah. Had my wrist in that hot hand of his the whole time. Wouldn't let go and I couldn't pull free cause that guy is STRONG. So I had to wait until he had transmitted all the data before I could get close."
She turned her head to Spock. "You didn't say you had hold of him all that time."
"I do not remember it. But it is certainly plausible. It would probably have been the only way to restrain him."
"But holding onto him didn't affect you in any way?"
Spock tilted his head, unfocussed his eyes, thinking. "No, I do not believe so. I continued to scan the formation, and then I relayed all the information up to the ship. And then when all the equipment ceased to function, I did force him to back up, away from the formation. So I do not believe that he had any effect on me at that time."
"So how close were you when the equipment stopped working?"
"About two meters, right, Spock?"
"That seems correct, yes."
"And when you backed up past that point, it all started working again?"
"Yes. And then we erected a barricade around the whole shebang to keep anyone else from blundering into it. And then we came back to the ship and went to the second planet."
Everyone sat around discussing the sequence of events which had just been laid out. No one could come up with anything that seemed like it might help.
Nyota rubbed her aching eyes and heaved a sigh. "Okay, what happened on the second planet?"